Riot update: London stays calm while more violence occurs around UK

By Maya Driver on August 10, 2011 12:03 PM

Tuesday night (9 August) in London was relatively calm as the extra thousands of police officers brought in to patrol the city evidently had some effect. But in other parts of the country, the chaos continued.

Looting and violence spread to Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. Shops were robbed and burned and three men died after being hit by a car in Birmingham.

Officers of Greater Manchester Police faced "unprecedented violence" and their Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said he had witnessed "the most sickening scenes" of his entire career.

He promised that rioters would be brought to justice, saying: "Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on film. We are coming for you, from today and no matter how long it takes, we will arrest those people responsible."

Prime Minister David Cameron announced that action will be taken to restore order, including having contingency plans for water cannons to be made available at 24 hours' notice.

He said: "We needed a fight back and a fight back is under way."

In London, as well as the stronger police presence, would-be looters may also have been deterred by the communities coming together to make a stand.

In Enfield, North London and Southall, West London, large groups of locals patrolled the streets late into Tuesday night ensuring that their homes and businesses were safe.

Also, groups organised through social networks such as Twitter have been conducting mass clean-ups in the areas affected by riots.

Parliament will be recalled on Thursday (11 August), which will allow MPs to "stand together in condemnation of these crimes and to stand together in determination to rebuild these communities".

One issue they may have to discuss are the budget cuts to police forces, since it has been admitted that the police were overstretched by the riots.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

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